LEIbor of love
Maui botanical artist brings an organic twist to the time-honored craft of lei making
Trending
There's nothing extraordinary about the exterior of the comfortable Wailuku home that 27-year-old lei artist Lauren Shearer shares with her roommate. Inside, however, a magical paradox unfolds. Spirits rise, carried aloft in swirls of unbridled creativity and tethered by earth energy--the mad genius of Picasso swaddled in the arms of a wood nymph.
On a large, elaborately carved wooden table amid a scatter of long needles and spools of twine, vintage trays, petite vases and bright ceramic pots hold the tools of Shearer's trade: Seeds, stems, leaves, nuts, flower sections, fruit pits and stones and other bits of outdoor fodder most folks sweep out onto the lanai. In the kitchen, harvested loquat seeds soak in a large pot.
Shearer, a vibrant young woman with long dark hair and expressive eyes, sits at the table threading tiny flowers onto a stretch of twine, nesting her experiement against a strand of dark brown seeds from the invasive koa haole plant. She deftly folds the leaves, stem and fiery orange-red petals into floral origami that, when fitted together create a stunning design--a green stripe captured between flashes of bright piping.
She plucks another flower from a nearby vase. "This is just a weed," she says, proudly presenting the flower like it was a piece of expensive jewelry. "I just picked it up the road on one of my walks. I don't even know what it's called yet, but I'll find out."
When she talks about lei making as an art form, Shearer lights up like keiki on Christmas morning.
"Plants are like puzzle pieces, they work together," she says. That's why I combine different things -- seeds, nuts, berries, all stages of flower from bud to blossom-- in my lei designs.
Maybe it's her intuitive reverance for nature or an organic form of x-ray vision that allows Shearer to find beauty and usefulness in whatever grows around her.
"Where someone might see a field of invasive kiawe, I see a thousand lei," she says. Plants are like puzzle pieces, they work together. That's why I combine different things in my lei designs.
"I recently made a lei out of aloe flowers, which are all around us, for a hanai uncle of mine. Now, whenever he sees an aloe plant, he calls me."
Shearer says she hopes her design philoshopy helps stimulate awareness of Hawaii's rich natural landscape.
"We have such a vast floral backdrop," she explains. "Why would I use the generic lei flowers so commercialized in Hawaii? Shipping in hundreds of orchids from Thailand just doesn't make sense."
Shearer's innovative creations, textured in a variety of natural elements, is on track to turn the traditional lei industry upside down. Her business, Flora + Fauna, is growing so quickly that she sometimes employs help when she receives big orders, usually weddings, which might demand up to 15 very specialized lei. If she does have to purchase flowers, she is very cognizant of using suppliers who sell locally sourced products.
In only two short years, Shearer has attracted a global legion of fans and high-profile clients that include Hawaii VIP Concierge and a handful of top-tier chefs who gift her lei to their exclusive clients.
For Valentine's Day, Shearer will be selling red-themed lei designs at a pop-up shop hosted by Biasa Rose in Paia.
"Red is the color of passion, pulsating love and blood," she says, adding that she plans to use hand-picked wild berries and flowers such as a closed hibiscus. But don't look for roses in her lei creations, she teases.
She'll also have other lei designs on display and provide materials for people interested in creating their own lei.
"How beautiful if someone can make a lei for their loved ones?" she says.
Why give a lei instead of a dozen roses or a box of chocolates?
"Love is simplified, like being with nature," Shearer says. "And love is a very natural thing, an inevitable life force. And if you grow with that, like a plant of a flower that blossoms and seeds and fruits, it's a natural cycle, and people get in touch with that feeling of love at a very deep level via a flower."
Shearer also loves being on the receiving end of lei gifting, she says. "Each time I wear it, I think about the person who gave it to me and that connection," she says.
Those who do present her with a handmade lei, do so with Shearer's adventurous spirit in mind.
"They experiment, play with new things and colors, and make it really funky," she says. "And I like that, because you see so much of the personality of the lei maker in the lei."
The pop-up shop event is Shearer's first, and the rocketing demand for her organically crafted lei still leaves her a little shell-shocked.
"I thought the market would be flooded with designs like mine, and I wouldn't even have a business," she says. "But before I knew it, it was full on."
Shearer paints in broad strokes when it comes to honing her craft. She spends hours treking through forests and fields foraging for design element, researching and logging everything she finds.
"I learn about the qualities of the plants, where they come from, how they propagate," she says. "And I'm constantly experimenting, combining colors, textures, flowers, nuts, seeds, berries -- everything. My main goal is creating a lei that's unique, aesthetically pleasing, long-lasting, fragrant, bold and makes the wearer feel good."
Shearer's favorite place to forage for materials is Upcountry.
"I go all over Kula-- Poli Poli, Crater Road -- just walking around," she says. "I've gotten really good about the amount I pick," she says. "I never want to waste anything."
Before Shearer removes any part of a plant, she takes a moment and silently asks permission--a reverential ritual that honors the plant, tree, weed, grass or fruit that imbue her lei with living energy.
When she uses flowers in a lei, she employs every stage from bud to full blossom. Like tropical snowflakes, no two leis are ever the same. One of the most requested lei designs, she says, is tuberose for the heady fragrance. "I'll make it and it'll have tuberose, but customers know it's also going to have something else."
Last spring, she made a lei out of purple jacaranda flowers. "I've seen those trees my whole life," she says. "When I finally made a lei from the flowers, it was amazing. I can't wait for jacaranda season."
She maintains a detailed catalogue of the flora she uses. This way, she knows what's in season and what's coming into season so she can 'go to the well' again when an experiment hits the bull's eye.
Shearer's fascination with flora and fauna took root early as a kid growing up on the slopes of Haleakala, surrounded by nature and a mother blessed with a green thumb.
"My mother was really into plants, so flowers were kind of a constant," she remembers. "I was always playing around with them and taking them apart."
In true Maui tradition, Shearer began making lei during May Day celebrations and soon was creating personalized lei as gifts for family and friends. "In high school, I was always the one to make the lei for friends' birthdays," she says.
Returning to the island after attending college in California and a stint on Oahu, where she began experimenting with foraged elements, she easily stepped back into her role as the go-to lei maker. "I learned how to make lei po'o (flowered crowns) from an auntie of mine," she recalls. "I would just go in my yard, pick things and string it together."
For lei 'a'i (neck lei), Shearer started using little flowers, atypical foliage and even invasive plants --whatever she could find.
"That's when I realized that (almost) everything can be made into a lei," she says.
She holds up a lei strung with moss-green velvet pods that, from a few steps away, could pass for dark jade.
"These are Mgambo or velvet seeds," Shearer explains. "This lei will last forever."
She ducks into another room and returns moments later with a curated tangle of seed lei and spreads them out on the table. One is made from wiliwili seeds, another ka 'e'e (seed/sea bean) and a third Hawaiian baby woodrose; each one more captivating than the last.
"This one is made from African tulip seed," she says, dangling a white lei that looks like hundreds of tiny squares of rice paper stacked together and strung. "Isn't this crazy?" she asks.
It is. The lei seems delicate and fragile, like it could disappear in the wake of an exhale. But it isn't. She made the lei nine months ago, she says, and it'll still be here nine months later.
When Shearer uses flowers in a lei, she employs every stage from bud to full blossom. Like tropical snowflakes, no two leis are ever the same.
When filling a request for a traditional flower or lei design, Shearer has to put her own stamp on it.
One of the most requested lei designs, she says, is tuberose for its heady fragrance.
"I'll make it, and it'll have tuberose, but my customers know it's also going to have something else," she says. "I just can't do it any other way."
_______________
Valetine’s 'Lei' Pop-up Shop
Biasa Rose will be hosting Flora + Fauna for a one day ~Pop-Up Shop~ from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Sweet treats will be serve.
Biasa Rose is located at 104 Hana Hwy. We will serve sweet little treats and offer 15% discount on selected items!
If you would like one of Shearer's distinctive lei creations and cannot make it to the pop-up shop, you can call her at 808-214-8707.